1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a tele-homecare monitoring system and a method thereof and, more particularly, to a portable tele-homecare monitoring system and method of the same that provides environmental and health monitoring within a domestic residence.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many tele-homecare monitoring systems are combined with information and communication technology for providing personal health management and services. Tele-homecare systems are widely used throughout Europe, North American, and Japan. Tele-homecare systems provide long-time monitoring of vital physiology signals and transmit them to a centralized database for storage and management via the Internet for use by a hospital or a similar healthcare provider.
TW patent no. 400503 proposed an “A packet-based tele-medicine system for communicating information between central monitoring stations and remote patient monitoring stations.” This patent provides a packet-based tele-medicine system for transmitting video, voice and medical data between a central monitoring station and a patient's monitoring station which is remotely-located with respect to the central monitoring station. The packet-based tele-medicine system diagram of this patent is shown in FIG. 1. The packet-based tele-medicine 10 consists of a pair of central monitoring stations 11, communicating via a wired or wireless method via the Internet 16 and a pair of patient monitoring stations 18 communicating with the central monitoring station 11. The central monitoring station 11 can be located in either a home of doctor 12, a doctor's clinic 13, or a hospital 14 and communicates via the wired or wireless method via the Internet 16.
TW patent no. M280207 proposed a “remote home care system.” The system diagram of this patent is shown in FIG. 2. The system includes a plurality of individual portable medical devices 20 for measuring vital physiology signals and recoding the subsequent data. A data transmitter unit 22 receives the vital physiology signals and records data for transmission via the Internet. A central monitor station 24 receives the outputted vital physiology signals and data from the data transmitter unit 22 via the Internet.
The system architecture as described above is very large. The system kernel is based in a hospital and the ISP so that the equipment is expensive and inflexible.